Tag Archives: Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women

Post navigation

I am excited about the opportunity to be one of four featured speakers and to share my family’s eldercare story from my book Singing Solo: In Search of a Voice for Mom at the CARING FOR A PERSON WITH MEMORY LOSS CONFERENCE, Saturday, May 30, 2015, at the University of Minnesota Mayo Memorial Auditorium.

This one-day conference is a great event that offers information, support, and education for adult children, spouses, parents, community care providers, and other individuals concerned with caring for persons with memory loss.

There is no cost for the conference for participants who do not want contact hours, but preregistration is required.

Please share this information with friends/family members who are concerned about memory issues with their loved ones.

The following is an excerpt from Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women:

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep stepping.

Chinese Proverb

Deborah Lysholm

“Deborah Lysholm, a dancer, prayed she could outrun the bullets as her husband chased her outside on a blustery April night in 1992 aiming a rifle at her. After 23 years of a terror filled marriage, she knew she had to leave him–no matter how much she feared and believed his threats that he would find her and kill her. Instead of becoming a statistic, she summoned unbelievable courage to start a new life for herself and her college-aged daughter, Kristen.”

excerpt from Deborah’s book Dancing To My Heartbeat

Dance has been an integral part of my life since childhood, and with each passing year, became increasingly instrumental in defining who I am. Striving for a career in dance, more specifically building a performing arts center, was my main focus.

Since things from the heart speak loudest to me, I wanted and needed a career that summon absolute zeal.

My dream flourished when my daughter and I opened our own performing arts center, Heartbeat Studios January 1998. I came alive at that moment because a new life was truly beginning for both of us. Making a living doing what I love to do is simply exhilarating!

In January 2013, Heartbeat celebrated its fifteenth anniversary. [Some] Milestones in those years include:

Being selected as the only dance studio to travel to London to represent the United States at the 400th anniversary celebration of settlers sailing from Kent, England to Jamestown, Virginia.

Developing a successful dance/movement program for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD.

Define what success is to you. Pull the curtain back to see what success will look like. … Always do your homework to ensure every step or decision you make is done with eyes wide open. Embrace what you do, not only with pride, but with undying passion. Love the ride.

Do not be afraid to ask questions or seek a mentor. Talk to many people and filter out what you know will be useful to your endeavor.

Being fearless and having the ability to dream big will set things in motion.

Be a good listener, even more than a good talker because the more information you take in, the more you will be prepared to pursue your goal.

Key to Success:

Not only have a clear vision of where you are headed, but also the humility to acknowledge there is no end to the “achieving success” process because the journey might take you in directions you never thought possible.

This is an excerpt from Unlocking The Secrets of Successful Women (story collector, Joan Kennedy)

“I knew I would be a writer from an early age, and I sold my first article for a dollar at the age of nine. Throughout my adolescence and well into my twenties, I wrote articles for a host of well-known publications: Scholastic, Teen, Highlights, later Redbook, Esquire, Ladies Home Journal. I discovered if I researched and wrote an article with no timeframe attached to it, any newspaper would jump on it, rather than have a reporter do all the legwork. Plus by selling to newspapers around the country, I kept the copyright and the byline and could sell the same article several times over. I wrote stories about the first Christmas tree, the tradition on Christmas cards, the History of St. Patrick’s Day, why fireworks and the Fourth of July are so closely related and many, many more.

I went on to write thirty to forty TV scripts for The Bob Newhart Show, All in the Family, One Day at a Time, and Rhoda. But of those thirty plus TV scripts, I only sold seven or eight. If Redbook rejected an article I had submitted, dozens of other publications would accept my story. But with TV, you simply can’t take a script for All in the Family and re-write it for MASH.

I discovered advertising –or, rather, it discovered me. I was freelancing at a radio station when they asked me to do a public Service Announcement for an anti-drug campaign, which, meant I wouldn’t get paid.I said sure. I did, and coined the phrase, “Don’t be a dope about dope,” which became, “Why do you think they call it dope?” It was parodied on Saturday Night Live, and LL Cool J wrote a song titled, “Why Do You Think They Call it Dope?” You never know where an opportunity can lead.

I went on to work for some top agencies in Chicago. I994, I decided to open my own freelance company. I returned to TV and decided to specialize in Direct Response, creating one-or two minute TV spots featuring an 800#. I was blessed to cut my teeth with the Iconic Nordic Track brand. I have written four George Foreman Grill Shows, countless more for Sleep Number bed, Oreck, AARP, Sharper Image, Tony Robbins, Sony Pictures and many, many more. I wrote the first-ever infomercial for Deepak Chopra, and other shows for Olivia Newton John, Joan Lunden, Kathy Lee Gifford, Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul), and a dozen more celebrities.

The lesson here is to never pass up an opportunity. If you’re an up-and comer, take on occasional spec work, ask for copies of the published or broadcast work, and always, always ask for written testimonials. I have dozens on my website, and even some on my client reel.

Think of writing as something to help you earn a living. Research what free-lance writers are charging on an hourly or per-project basis, and build your professional portfolio to showcase your (paid) talents.

Let’s say you love decorating or touring houses. Did you know you can get paid for writing up creative house descriptions for real estate companies? Are you a foodie or just someone who enjoys gourmet food? Get paid for writing restaurant menus or reviews – enjoy some of the best meals in your town. Are you spiritual? Many ministers and pastors pay for someone to write their sermons, or a column in the church newspaper. There’s also a growing market in writing blogs. Many CEOs, artists, speakers, and other people, simply don’t have the time to write their own blog, so they give a freelance writer a list of topics and pay to have them penned.

What are you passionate about? Find it, follow it and do it, and you’ll never regret it.

The key to success: Success to me was and is doing something I love to do and get paid.

From Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women: “Everybody builds a dream in their lifetime. You’re either going to build your dream, or somebody else’s. So build your own” – Christopher LaBrec I spent a year interviewing and getting to know … Continue reading →

So, what have you been telling yourself today? Have you fretted about your future, nagged yourself about your past, have you chided yourself for making a mistake, the wrong decision, or have you praised and supported yourself?

If you don’t remember what you said to yourself today, you’re not alone. There are things we say to ourselves that we are not even aware , because this self-talk is so familiar to us.

The greatest discovery we can make is to learn of the wisdom and power that dwells within us, it enables us to overcome problems and achieve more in life. We are all equipped with the necessary elements, qualities and potential to make our lives the one we truly want to live.

This wisdom and power will bring you more love, more success, more money, more confidence, more happiness and more peace of mind.

But it can also bring you more fialure, more frustration, more fear and more self-doubt.

It only waits for you to tell it what to do.

Here’s the good part, the experts tell us this Power is so subject to our suggestions that in affirmations we have a tool of extraordinary power, we can raise our self image, thereby raising our potential–we can literally change the course of our lives by changing our inner dialogue.

Change what’s happening inside, to create a whole new world for yourself outside.

I love this quote–I think it could help center many women (and men!). Stop waiting for that magic amount of money to prove to yourself you’re successful. Do you like yourself? Do you like what you do? Do you like … Continue reading →

We’ve all had inspired moments when we clearly see how we can do certain things, but we don’t believe in ourselves or in our ideas enough to make them a reality.

Then, sooner or later, someone else comes along with no more ability or background and does the very thing we had envisioned for ourselves.

One of our main problems is our fear of criticism.

Fear of criticism can bring on a lack of initiative and a lack of ambition, not to mention an inferiority complex! That fear creates a whopping feeling of self-doubt.

Fear of criticism is one of the most damaging emotions we can encounter in the pursuit of our dreams.

On the other hand, when we actually have approval we gain confidence and this strengthens our belief in ourselves. How many dreams perish because we don’t get the needed approval?

The approval of others makes us feel good and seems to validate our decisions and abilities. We get caught up in pleasing because of our dependence on positive feedback.

Conversely, many people never set high goals because they anticipate what friends and relatives will say:

“You don’t have the background.”

“It’s been done.”

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“It won’t work.”

When you start thinking that other people just may be right, you start making adjustments in your plans. The more people you talk to, the more adjustments you make.

You will never please everyone. So why try?

It takes courage to break away from negative thinking of those around us and to proceed despite the negative opinions of others.

An enormous amount of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. When you have faith in yourself, your abilities and talents, you can pursue your dreams. But as soon as you start doubting , you’ll experience set-backs and problems.

There are three important points that will help you in the pursuit of your dreams: